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Social Movements

MOLEGHAF Statement: A Call For Revolutionary Forces To Assemble

The political organizations of the popular movement, all revolutionary forces must come together to steer the course of the struggle. Throughout the period of generalized class warfare established by the cynical capitalist class in our country, aiming to trample upon the wealth of the popular masses, we can observe the strong imperialist intentions of the American empire and its allies, the capitalist class, manifesting to completely crush any attempt to break free from the oppressive system. Meanwhile, they play on the disorganization within our party and political organizations, aiming to exploit the masses without facing any revolutionary actions in times of crises.

United States Suffers Humiliating Defeat In Haiti

With the resignation of interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry, the US has suffered another humiliating foreign policy defeat. Henry was never elected, yet was recognized as prime minister and de facto leader of Haiti by the US and its vassals since July 2021, when he was encouraged to take power by the Core Group. The Core Group is a shadowy imperialist cabal composed of representatives from the US, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the European Union, Brazil, and the Organization of American States (OAS) that has attempted to run Haiti since 2004, when democratically elected and hugely popular Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was abducted in the middle of the night by US marines and flown to the Central African Republic.

Haiti’s Acting Prime Minister And President Ariel Henry Resigns

Ariel Henry, Haiti’s acting prime minister and president since July 2021, resigned from his post on Monday, March 11. The resignation of Henry was announced by Irfaan Ali, Guyanese President and Chair of CARICOM, in a press conference in Kingston, Jamaica on Monday. Ali also announced that a “transitional governance arrangement” had been achieved in order to restore “rule of law” and ensure a peaceful transition of power, security, and eventual elections. The announcement came as a result of an urgent meeting on the “multidimensional crisis in Haiti” convened by CARICOM.

Honduras, 2009: Legacy Of A Coup

In June 2009, Honduras faced a devastating coup that shattered the country’s fragile democracy and sunk the country into violence, repression, and a decade-long narco-dictatorship. But the people fought back. In this continuation of Episode 7, host Michael Fox looks at the fallout of the 2009 coup in Honduras, walking from 2009 into the present. He takes us to Tegucigalpa to dive into the fraudulent U.S.-backed elections that ushered in a narco-dictatorship, and also the resistance movement that, after years of struggle, ultimately did what it set out to do: remove the dictatorship and return democracy to Honduras.

Ariel Henry: An Itinerant Ex-Prime Minister Without A Country

Since arriving in New York from Nairobi, Kenya on Sat., Mar. 2, former de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry has been trying to get back to Haiti. But Haiti does not want him. He spent several days in Manhattan, but no commercial flights could fly him and his large entourage to Haiti because the Port-au-Prince airport was closed after gunfire hit an Avolon charter jet bound for Cuba on Thu., Feb. 29. (No one was injured, and the damage was minimal.) Over the weekend, Henry asked Washington to provide him with a military plane and soldiers to accompany him back to Haiti.

Biden Memos Show Palestine Advocacy Is Working

For a very long time, Palestinians and those in solidarity with them in the United States have faced mounting frustration. The work is hard, victories are rare, and they often seem very small against the setbacks and the ongoing loss of life and general misery that Israel brings to the lives of every Palestinian under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. If that is a more or less permanent feeling for many, it is more acute than ever now and for the past five months. We mobilize, we agitate, we protest, we argue, we shout, and not only does Israel’s genocide in Gaza continue, but U.S. President Joe Biden does everything he can to maintain both material and political support for it.

Bolivia: A Judicial Coup

On Monday, January 22nd, the poor in Bolivia set up road blockades. That day marks the fifteenth anniversary of a great step in human dignity called the Plurinational State of Bolivia. The blockaders resisted police aggression for nearly 2 weeks. The closure of the roads had only one objective: To stop a judicial coup that aims to dismantle a range of collective rights enshrined in the 2009 Constitution, a spectacular constitution that was born of the thirty-six; original and indigenous nations including the Quechua, Mojeña, and Aymara, whose organizing changed modern history. The United Nations declared itself on the side of the blockaders.

Global Tapestry Of Alternatives: Weaving Transformative Connections

Proactive responses to the multiple crises the world faces—ecological, socio-cultural, political, economic, spiritual—are widespread and diverse. They range from movements of resistance to the dominant ecologically destructive and socially inequitable model of “development” that has been imposed across the world, to people’s initiatives at constructing or sustaining ways of life that meet human needs and aspirations without despoiling the earth and exacerbating inequalities. They are emerging from Indigenous Peoples and other rural communities, from urban neighborhoods, from both the Global South and Global North, from both marginalized sections and the privileged elite.1

President Petro Denounces Attempt Of Institutional Rupture And Coup

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, denounced the attempt of a “serious rupture of institutional order,” referring to the investigation by the Attorney General’s Office against him, which he called unconstitutional. Petro decried that the Colombian Attorney General’s Office has opted for disruption of institutional order to remove him from the presidency. “They have decided to break the institutional order. As the president of the republic, I must warn the world of the mafia that has taken over the Attorney General’s Office, and I must ask the people for maximum mobilization,” the Colombian president wrote on social media.

Argentine Court Invalidates President Milei’s Labor Reform

On Tuesday, the National Chamber of Labor Appeals declared the constitutional invalidity of the labor reform included by President Javier Milei in the Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) signed in December. During a press conference at the Pink House, Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni said that Milei will appeal this decision at all necessary levels, including the Supreme Court. "The reform is essential to create employment, for companies to hire, and to have a much more friendly labor market for both parties," he said, attempting to justify a pro-corporations proposal that has been strongly rejected by the population on the streets.

The Return Of The Guatemalan Spring, Update 1

Guatemala’s new president Bernardo Arévalo was inaugurated on January 14. But it did not come off without a hitch. Outgoing opposition lawmakers did their best to try to stymie the swearing-in of Arévalo and some of his party members. Arévalo’s supporters rallied in Guatemala City. As we looked at in Episode 2, Bernardo Arévalo is the son of Guatemala’s first democratic leader Juan José Arévalo, who ushered in the Guatemalan Spring. Bernardo Arévalo has promised to lift Guatemala once again, but… even after winning the election, he faced constant legal maneuvers, led by the attorney general, that aimed to overturn the results and block his inauguration.

Davos Elites Talk About Rebuilding Trust; People Talk Of System Change

With war threatening to escalate in the Middle East, as well as crises in Ecuador and many other parts of the world, most people are not even aware that the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland is rolling around again this week. In the context of sharpening inequalities, and perilous global politics, what relevance does this gathering have outside the elite bubble? The Forum’s annual Global Risks Report itself posits misinformation, societal polarization, extreme weather conditions, conflict, and rising cost of living among the key risks to the global economy this year. What the WEF has failed to define is that for many, the coming year does not bring the threat of multiple crises.

Ralph Poynter Used His Strong Voice And Stout Heart To Fight For Justice

Ralph Poynter was the son of a union organizer. His family was located in the Pittsburgh area, which was a major steel producer at that time. He graduated from Duquesne University with a master’s degree in music education. Grounded in union principles, he joined the United Federation of Teachers, UFT, when he began working at P.S. 175 in Harlem as a 5th-grade substitute teacher in the mid-1960s. It was at the time when the struggle for community control of the city’s public schools first erupted. Community school boards throughout the city were attempting to exercise their control of the teaching staff to reflect the needs of the children in their communities.

Answering The Call

First, what is strategy, and why does anyone need it? Aren’t social movements all about taking action to create change? Deepak Bhargava and Stephanie Luce, who teach at CUNY’s School of Labor and Urban Studies, tackle this question head-on. “How do oppressed people, facing far stronger opponents, sometimes win?” The key to an underdog’s success, they argue, is strategy. While long-term planning comes naturally to the wealthy and powerful, strategy is even more important for the dispossessed to achieve their goals. Yet if the stories of the less powerful are rarely told, their strategies are even harder to trace.

Lessons From One Unequal Society To Another

This past Sunday, Chileans voted once again on a new constitution, opting to reject — for the second time in two years — an attempt at constitutional revision. Rejecting a highly conservative text, voters chose to keep the dictatorship-era constitution for the time being. A political saga that began amid immense hope has now devolved into a dismal disarray that’s left countless Chileans tired and frustrated. Here in the United States, we face an equally bleak political outlook. According to a recent Pew Research Center report, 25 percent of U.S. adults feel that neither of the nation’s two major parties represents them adequately enough. Some 63 percent of Americans express little to no confidence in the future of our political system.